- Very simple way of prayer…centered entirely on attention to the presence of God
- Adoring God as indivisible and infinitely beyond our comprehension
- Direct seeking of the face of the invisible, which cannot be found unless we become lost in God who is Invisible
- (from Hidden Ground of Love)
- Contemplation is becoming aware of how I truly am in God.
- In contemplation, we journey inward and discover our union with God and with each other.
- Contemplative prayer, a prayer of wordless presence, invitation to penetrate below surface existence to live life’s Mystery.
- It is possible to experience God, to awaken to and become aware of God’s presence, to become real and whole, to become truly oneself.
- Inner experience, living life fully awake and aware to the reality of God, being touched by God
- It is not we who choose to awaken ourselves but God who chooses to awaken us.
- Being born again is a metaphor for contemplation.
If there is no silence beyond and within the many words of doctrine, there is no religion, only a religious ideology. Where this silence is lacking, where there is much bustle and activity but no peace, no deep thought, no understanding no inner quiet. Only in silence and solitude, in the quiet reverent peace of prayer, the adoration in which the entire ego-self silences and abases itself in the presence of the Invisible God to receive word of Love, only in these “activities” which are “non-actions” does the spirit truly wake from the dream of multifarious, confused, and agitated existence.
In solitude one is at the root. Solitude is not withdrawal from ordinary life. It is the very ground of ordinary life, the simple, unpretentious, fully human activity by which we quietly earn our daily living and share our experiences with a few intimate friends.
- Unity is our original state. We are already one. But we do not see it and, in our ignorance, live as though we are not one at all. The challenge before us is twofold: to realize the unity that already is and to find ways to live together that are consistent with unity.
- God, that center Who is everywhere, and Whose circumference is nowhere, finding me through incorporation with Christ, incorporated into the immense and tremendous gravitational movement which is love, which is the Holy Spirit. (from Seven Storey Mountain)
The choice before us is between violence and love. Violence rests on the assumption that the enemy and I are entirely different; the enemy is evil and I am good. The enemy must be destroyed but I must be saved. But love sees things differently. It sees that even the enemy suffers from the same sorrows and limitations that I do. That we both have the same hopes, the same needs, the same aspiration for peaceful and harmonious human life. And that death is the same for both of us. Then love may perhaps show me that my brother is not really my enemy and that war is both his enemy and mine. War is our enemy. Then peace becomes possible.
Instead of hating the people you think are warmakers, hate the appetites and disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, tyranny, greed but hate these things in yourself, not in another.